THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Along with all Americans,
my heart goes out to the people across Southern California who have
lost their homes, their possessions, and who have witnessed private
property and the natural environment devastated by these terrible
fires. More than 400 homes have already been consumed. And
evacuations are now occurring, involving thousands of our fellow
citizens.

This morning, I want to announce several specific
actions that I am taking to respond to this tragedy in California.
First, I have designated Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego
and Ventura Counties and major disaster areas. This makes them
available for customary federal assistance to individuals and to
state and local governments.

Second, I spoke last night with our FEMA Director, James
Lee Witt, and he is proceeding to California this morning, along with
the Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt, who met with Mr.
McLarty this morning.

Third, I have spoken with Governor Pete Wilson and will
be consulting soon with Senators Feinstein and Boxer, to receive
their recommendations on how we can be more helpful to the state.

Finally, I have instructed the Chief of Staff, Mr.
McLarty to coordinate the full delivery of all appropriate federal
resources and assistance to California. We've already dispatched 20
Forest Service air tankers there, and many additional federal
firefighters to the scene. I have asked Secretary Babbitt and
Secretary Espy to coordinate with James Lee Witt so that we can have
a full federal response to the problems in California.

Many hundreds of people on the ground are engaged in
valiant efforts to fight these fires now. Neighbors are helping
neighbors. We will offer what we can to help fight the fires, to
meet the needs of the victims, to stand with the people who are
already doing so much.

Now, before I answer questions, I'd like to say just
another word on another subject. For the past nine months, the
primary focus of this administration has been on improving the
economy in ways that average Americans can actually tell were
affecting their lives in a positive way. We've taken some very
serious actions to reduce the deficit, to help increase the fairness
of the tax code to provide incentives to invest in important areas of
our national economy, to try to give working families with modest
incomes and children at home a better break.

Now, we're beginning to see real results -- higher
growth rates, lower deficits, things that over the long run will
represent real progress for the American people. When our
administration took office, the deficit for this year was projected
to be well in excess of $300 billion. The Treasury Department and
the Office of Management and Budget have confirmed today that in the
end, it turned out to be substantially lower. We finished this year
with a deficit of $255 billion, over $50 billion below where it was
projected to be.

After years of bad policies and bad estimates, when
lower deficits actually went far higher, it's pleasing to me to see
that a deficit came in lower than it was projected, because of
efforts directed to lower interest rates which had significant direct
and indirect benefits to this economy.

Lower deficits and lower interest rates have sparked the
beginning of a significant economic recovery. Today, we are seeing a
third quarter economic growth rate recorded at 2.8 percent. I might
say that it would have been substantially higher but for the floods
in the Middle West and the drought in the Southeast.

Although we know our economy is still not working well
enough for most Americans, these numbers make clear that the historic
drop in interest rates, following the announcement of our economic
plan and its ultimate passage, is sparking a sustainable recovery
that is increasing investments in our future, investments in housing
and businesses, and in durable goods.

There is a lot more to do. We are, after all, as I have
said now for nearly two years, dealing with trends that are 20 years
in the making -- trends of stagnant incomes, trends of exploding
health care costs, trends of difficult investment decisions too long
postponed in America. But we are beginning to see real progress. We
are moving in the right direction and we have to stay on this course.

I am very grateful to the people in the Congress who
have supported the economic plan that has produced these low interest
rates, that has led to most of the deficit reduction below the
projected targets, and I think that this is clearly a good sign that
we're moving in the right direction.

I also want to say that it clearly means that we have
much more to do. That's why I think it's important that before the
Congress goes home, we adopt NAFTA, it's important that we take this
health care issue on seriously and see it through to the end, and
there are a lot of other issues that we'll be dealing with at the end
of this year, and especially next year, to keep this economic
recovery going. But this is good news.

Q Mr. President, on the economy, we've seen a number
of false starts over the past year and a half, two years. Are you
convinced that recovery is assured now, or are you still considering
some sort of stimulus package to hold in abeyance if necessary?

THE PRESIDENT: What I believe is that we are seeing the
beginning of a recovery that -- you can't say it's assured, because
we're in a global economy. But it is clearly sustaining itself based
on American policies and without much help from overseas because of
the very slow growth to no growth in Europe, and because of the
economic problems in Japan.

Another reason I feel very strongly about NAFTA is that
Latin America is the second fastest-growing part of the world.
They're actually increasing their incomes. They have a willingness
and an ability, these countries do, to buy more American products.
And in order to keep this recovery going and actually have it
manifest itself in more jobs and higher incomes, we are going to have
to have the ability to sell our products around the world.

But, yes, I think we're seeing the beginning of a very
stable, long-term recovery. But, keep in mind, there are many things
we have to do. We are dealing in part with trends that have been 20
years in the making. And you just don't turn those around overnight.

Q Will you travel to California?

THE PRESIDENT: I haven't made a decision on that yet.
I had a very heart-rending talk this morning with the Governor, and I
tried to find the two Senators, also. I'll be talking with them; but
they may be both, I think, making preparations to go on out
immediately.

I did call James Lee Witt last night. We had a long
talk, and I told him I thought it was important for him to be on the
ground there today, to call and to give me a report and see how we
were doing.

For anybody who has ever been in that part of the state,
this is a very -- it's very troubling. One of our administration
members apparently may lose his home, had his family evacuated in
Orange County. So it's a very -- a huge fire out there, and we're
going to do whatever it takes to help the people.

Q Mr. President, can FEMA handle this after the
terrible year that the administration has had with the floods? Do
you have the resources to help California?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, they did a very fine job with the
floods. And I expect to get a -- let me get a report from James Lee
Witt when he gets out there on the scene and we'll let you know.

This is something that we have tried to mobilize and
alert the Agriculture Department and the Interior Department, not
only because we have some federal land out there that is affected,
but because we do have trained firefighters in those agencies that
might be able to help. So we're trying to put all that together now,
and I should be able -- by the middle of the afternoon, I'll know
more about this.

Q Mr. President, you've also said before that -- just
to follow up -- that California is the weakest part of our economy.
Isn't it likely that this will further drag down not only California,
but the rest of the country? What extra help can you give them now?

THE PRESIDENT: Let's try to help them get the fire out
first, and we'll focus on that.

Q Mr. President, the last time there was a major
natural disaster in California, the earthquake in the Bay Area, there
was a lot of complaint within the state about bureaucratic red tape
bungling, what have you. I know you've tried to make improvements in
FEMA during the flood period, but what sort of assurances can you
offer the state that this time the job will be done right?

THE PRESIDENT: All I can tell you is, I believe that
the people who suffered in that historic flood in the Midwest believe
that we did cut through the red tape, that we were on top of the
situation from the beginning, and that we worked through it as best
as possible. And if we do as well in California as we did there, I
think the people will be satisfied.

What I want to know, in response to your question and
Andrea's, is, what is different about this? Are there going to be
different challenges? Will there be different problems? But I have
every confidence that James Lee Witt will do the same job in
California he did in the Middle West and, along with Mike Espy and
Bruce Babbitt, we'll be on top of it and we'll do whatever it takes
to make the most of a very difficult situation.

Q I have a question on Haiti, Mr. President. Do you
accept the fact that President Aristide won't be back in power
tomorrow? And do you favor tightening sanctions?

THE PRESIDENT: We're looking at a number of other
options, and I'm also looking forward to President Aristide's speech
to the United Nations, which I think he has probably concluded now.
I know he was to give it this morning, but I haven't gotten a report
on it. The Vice President talked with him yesterday, and we have
worked very closely on this. We spent about 40 minutes on it this
morning in the normal national security briefing period. We are
looking at what our options are.

I think that, just from the morning press reports, if
Mr. Francois and the others in Haiti believe that all they have to do
is to wait out Aristide and everything will somehow be alright, and
that the international community will put up with the reestablishment
of a Duvalier-like regime there, in plain violation of the
overwhelming majority of the people of Haiti, I think they're just
wrong.

Again, I will say, people down there that are thwarting
democracy's return have got to decide whether they want to hold on
tight to a shrinking future, or take a legitimate and proportionate
share of an expanding future. It is their decision. But I think
they are making a grave mistake, and we are looking at what our other
options are.